詹姆斯·费伦修辞叙事理论把叙事看作是读者参与的动态进程,叙事不仅依赖作者的叙事技巧和策略,而且需要读者投入情感认知等才能不断推进。“读者”概念的引入是詹姆斯·费伦与此前W·C·布斯修辞叙事研究最大的不同之处,也是其特色所在。有关“读者”概念的认识主要体现在他对四维度读者观的论述中,但是其对“读者”概念的阐释只能算作一种理想的理论模式,不同读者之间缺乏明晰的界限,表现在两个方面:一是有血有肉的实际读者的差异往往会渗透作用于其他读者身份,二是参与叙事的不同读者身份在具体转化时复杂难辨。 James Frenton’s rhetoric theory regards narrative as the dynamic process of readers’ participation. The narrative not only relies on the author’s narrative skills and tactics, but also requires readers to devote their emotions to cognition. The introduction of the concept of “reader” is also the distinctive feature of the most significant difference between the research on the rhetorical narrative of W.C. Booth and James Phelan. The cognition about the concept of “reader ” is mainly reflected in his discussion of four-dimensional readership, but his interpretation of “reader ” can only be regarded as an ideal theoretical model, and there is a lack of clarity among different readers The difference is shown in two aspects. First, the flesh-and-blood differences of actual readers tend to infiltrate the identities of other readers. Second, the readers’ identities of participating narratives are complex and difficult to distinguish when they are transformed.